(For illustration only - not my home - craft was
a little less than
twice as high as this.)

My sighting was of a silent craft with rotating lights, at medium helicopter
height, and lasted for 3-5 minutes. I had a second sighting one month
later which I eventually forced myself to discount because I was in a
car by myself, on my way to an evening job, and had no other witness.

As to the first: My wife had passed her comprehensive teaching exam
and we were going out to dinner. We were happy, nothing else was onmy mind except going out to celebrate. I went to take out what little
garbage we had that night, before leaving for our celebration dinner,
when "whack," it came in overhead. (Except there was no "whack.")

At first glance, I first thought it was an airplane with its engines
sparking. I turned away to put down the garbage pail and all of a
sudden realized I didn't hear the sound of the engines from the plane
which should have been passing directly overhead at the angle it was
coming in. (It was fairly low. I normally can easily hear planes much
higher. I am a respected musician/teacher with really excellent ears.)

When it first hovered, I remember it having a mist around it that
eventually cleared; Also when it hovered, it exhibited the "typical"
falling leaf motion mentioned back then..also .. its lights were
rotating. (jc 7/24/2006: Horizontally around the craft) I cupped my ears and
aimed them right toward it and all I could hear was a super-faint,
light sort of "peal of static electricity." It was around for at least
3 minutes; generally over 2-3 neighbor's houses.

At that point, it completely blew my mind because there was absolutely
no doubt what I was looking at. It was a definite craft and fairly
large. (Way too large to be up there with virtually no sound) Things
raced through my mind: I asked myself if it was a balloon, dirigible,
kite, helicopter (actually didn't have to do that... no sound), model
"anything" ... and _nothing_ fit. I'd never seen anything like it
before or since. (It wasn't a dirigible or blimp of any type because
the movement was totally wrong and I could always hear the motor on
any blimp I ever observed and focused my ears on. It was, for the most
part, quiet in our area at the time of the sighting; i.e. no competing noise.)

This next part gets to the point I am trying to make by mentioning all
this: I ran into the house to get my wife and finally got her to come
out to take a look. (We didn't own a camera back then.) She is not
into mechanical things or electrical equipment & won't touch a
computer. This "craft" was up there doing its silent thing with a
"controlled" movement (i.e. it wasn't just floating,) and I went
through a whole series of questions with her; i.e. was it any of the
above things previously mentioned in the last paragraph. When I was
finished and got a "no" to everything I asked, and we were staring at
it together, I asked her; "Hon., do you think we could be looking at a
UFO." Her reply to me was; "It can't be. There are no such things."

To her, it couldn't exist. For her, this was a "non-event" and
remained that way, diminished to nothingness in her memory over
the years, to my extreme frustration. (I was incredibly angry about it
for years.) Yet I on the other hand, absolutely without the least bit
of doubt, knew what I was looking at. It didn't fit anything I knew
about aeronautics or aerodynamics.